Servicing will always be a key part of the mortgage finance system, but lawmakers remain displeased with how much information is available from the independent foreclosure review that was halted mid-stream this year.

Despite servicers working hard to comply with new regulations and regain their footing in the marketplace, confidence on the consumer side is still eroded.

The following article in the Washington Post addresses the issue which surfaced at a Senate Banking hearing this week.

It’s critically important that we understand what went wrong in the financial market institutions that manage the mortgage market, both during the bubble and the crash.

One of those institutions is the mortgage “servicing” industry, which is responsible for collecting payments and handling problems for securitized mortgages. It is at the center for those seeking justice for past wrongdoing, and crucial for writing new regulations to prevent trouble in the future.

But a new obstacle to this has arrived on the scene: federal regulators blocking the release of records they have collected documenting illegal abuses.